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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in not paying cleaner due to snow

212 replies

dietingagainandagain · 05/03/2018 12:34

Not long had a cleaner so not sure what the done thing is. Also we are not loaded and this is definitely a luxury.

Anyway due to the snow the lady wasn't able to come out last week.
Should we pay anyway for the missed week?

I go through a company and pay them a proportion by bank transfer but leave most of the payment in cash for the actual lady who comes. There isn't any contract as such.

I think paying is the right thing to do but DH thinks we shouldn't. Who is right?

OP posts:
Aridane · 05/03/2018 14:56

No, I wouldn't pay

NotLinkedInSnowedIn · 05/03/2018 14:58

I think I'd pay her half. The snow wasn't your fault either.

bebealpha · 05/03/2018 15:01

I've never paid my cleaner if she doesn't clean. She's self employed and to my mind that's how it works.

anothersuitcase · 05/03/2018 15:04

I have been in a very similar job/ situation as your cleaner, and had that same situation arise many times. Not a single family has ever paid me if I couldn't come, no matter what the reason. Of votes if would have been lovely, but I never expected it and the opinions about this on Mumsnet are not the norm, not where I live anyway. Personally I'd give her the opportunity to do more hours the following week but would not be paying for a service I hadn't received.

JanQuadrantVincent · 05/03/2018 15:04

waves at yule

Btw like yule my DH still paid his employees, still had costs associated with running the business, also is trusted by customers as we have keys/ gate codes etc and access to garages. And they have some pretty pricey stuff hanging around.

We also don't charge customers who forget we are coming (despite the bloody reminders) and block access, don't leave gates unlocked. So maybe they think we aren't bothered by missed jobs 🤷‍♀️

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 05/03/2018 15:04

ASk her the reschedule the hours: either add onto the existing appointments or ask to come on another day to clean things she usually wouldn’t.

heron98 · 05/03/2018 15:06

Surely she's self employed so isn't paid if she doesn't work? I

Chickoletta · 05/03/2018 15:07

Some very condescending attitudes to cleaners on here! My last cleaner was a retired chartered accountant who wanted to keep busy in her retirement and I now have the owner of a cleaning company who seems to be making a very tidy living (possibly more than I do in my professional role now that I'm part-time). I cleaned to support myself through university.

bridgetreilly · 05/03/2018 15:09

I would pay her, but I would also ask if she could maybe do an extra hour this week to catch up a bit.

Chickoletta · 05/03/2018 15:11

And no, I didn't and wouldn't pay for the snow days as I didn't receive the service I pay for.

RoadToRivendell · 05/03/2018 15:16

Some very condescending attitudes to cleaners on here!

Possibly. I pay my cleaner a fixed number of hours each month, regardless of her holiday or sick days. I'm sure I wouldn't do the same for my accountant.

The gap between cleaners and those who employ them is sufficiently wide that I err on the side of generosity. I'm willing to accept this might be patronising.

PopGoesTheWeaz · 05/03/2018 15:21

I am a self employed professional and couldn't get into the office last week so I'm not getting paid. Frankly, I think the same rules apply but if I had cleaner I wanted to keep sweet I would ask if she wanted to make up the work at another time or do some ironing on the side

newdocket · 05/03/2018 15:24

I don't think I would pay for a no-clean but I would ask her if she wanted additional hours to make up for it.

Hateloggingin · 05/03/2018 15:27

What do you all do if you have to cancel your cleaner? We pay ours if we cancel but don’t pay if she cancels. From conversations with her though this is really unusual and her other clients don’t pay her if they cancel... one had cancelled 3 weeks in a row! Surely you should pay if you cancel, like you’d still pay nursery if your child was ill and didnt attend one day?

user1483387154 · 05/03/2018 15:36

No I wouldn't pay her as she didn't do the job.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 05/03/2018 15:38

That would depend on the contract or verbal agreement, but what you do, Hate seems reasonable yet it seems to be outside her contract and expectations.

But a nursery is a different kettle of fish, not really a good analogy due to all sorts of other legalities.

saoirsesoige · 05/03/2018 15:41

No I wouldn't pay her as she didn't do the job

OP got paid and didn't do her job either.

Married3Children · 05/03/2018 15:50

No I wouldn't pay her as she didn't do the job

OP got paid and didn't do her job either.

OP is also employed and not self employed. The fact that you won’t be paid if you don’t do the job, due eg snow or holidays, when you are self employed is the reason why someone who is self eompoyed should/will be paid more than someone who is employed to do the same job.

I’m self employed. I lost more or less all my income last week. I can promise you that my clients would be very pissed off if I asked them to pay for appointments they couldnt make due to the snow.

It’s amazing how some professions seem to lead to a ‘I’m not paying if I haven’t had xxx, even if I didn’t follow the cancellation procedure because I was ill/forgot/couldn’t be bothered’ whereas others are all about the ‘oh poor them, they are going to loose their income. I can’t possibly not paid them’.....

Married3Children · 05/03/2018 15:54

Hate as a self employed person.
I would ask for at least xxx days/week notice for a cancellation. I have 24 hours because it works for my business but I suspect a cleaner would need more like a week notice.
Then if you cancel with more than whatever they cancellation notice is, you don’t pay.
It’s very different from a nursery because you don’t pay as you go for nursery. You pay for a month. And you can’t really replace a child that isnt coming at the drop of the hat. Whereas as a cleaner, you could agree to do a one off spring clean for example.
But tbh the start is to have a contract/agreement between the cleaner and the client!

UserSnoozer · 05/03/2018 15:56

She didn't clean though. Why pay for a service you didn't get?

slithytove · 05/03/2018 15:59

I wouldn’t only again as I am self employed and lost 2 days pay.
Our cleaner is also on a better hourly rate than me.

TerracottaAmy · 05/03/2018 16:07

I wouldn't pay - I'm self employed and didn't get paid for work I couldn't do last week due to snow.

My cleaner fought her way through the snow to get to me - I was so happy to see her

Lizzie48 · 05/03/2018 16:21

In our case, our cleaners (we've had two in the last 10 years) have come every other week so this wouldn't have been an issue, they would have done the cleaning the following week.

If it was every week, our last cleaner was very much living hand to mouth as a young Polish woman and she was very hard working, so I would have paid her, I think.

theunsure · 05/03/2018 16:42

The mean spirited nature of so many people on Mumsnet astonishes me - it's up there with the threads on dividing restaurant bills.
Yuck - I am so glad the people I mix with in real life are so much more generously minded!

CoffeeOrSleep · 05/03/2018 16:46

Can everyone stop saying she's self employed when the OP also pays directly to a cleaning company so we don't know if she's self employed or not - but unlikely given there's a cleaning company the OP arranged this through.

If the money goes directly to the cleaner, who is self employed, then there's an argument for paying if you want to be nice.

If she's paid a wage by the cleaning company, the OP paying or not paying will not make any difference to if the cleaner gets the money. It could well be the day's leave is unpaid by the company, even if the OP pays for a service she didn't get.

If the OP isn't sure, then she should call the cleaning company and ask.